The DIVERSE_GENE_WATCH Cross-Country Workshop Connected the Baltic Sea Region Countries on Forest Genetic Monitoring

Around 30 experts and representatives from universities, research institutions, government officials, and forest owners met online on 2 October 2025 to co-create a harmonised approach to Forest Genetic Monitoring (FGM) across the Baltic Sea Region. The online event, hosted by the Agency for Renewable Resources (FNR), marked a major step toward designing a coordinated approach to monitor forest genetic diversity across national borders in the Baltic Sea Region.

The workshop followed six national co-creation workshops held in Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Sweden. These national sessions provided a foundation of country-specific insights, which were shared, compared, and consolidated at this regional event. The results revealed both common challenges and strong alignment in the vision for an effective, transnational FGM framework.

Across Baltic Sea Region countries within the project scope, participants reached a shared understanding that forest genetic diversity monitoring should be harmonised, long-term, and integrated within existing gene-conservation, forest inventory, and biodiversity monitoring systems to safeguard the adaptive capacity of forests under climate change. The common vision is to build on current national frameworks and link with European initiatives, ensuring methodological coherence and comparable results across borders.  Gene Conservation Units (GCUs) were viewed as ideal reference sites, but participants also emphasised monitoring commercial forests and selected protected areas to capture both management and natural adaptation processes, with close coordination between forest and nature-conservation authorities.

Looking ahead, the DIVERSE_GENE_WATCH set a path for advancing forest genetic monitoring across the Baltic Sea region. Project partners will jointly prepare harmonisation methods and long-term coordination while continuing collaboration with the European framework. Through these efforts, DIVERSE_GENE_WATCH aims to transform scientific insights into practical monitoring tools and policy support, laying the groundwork for a resilient, well-connected forest genetic conservation network across the region.

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